Rainy Fourth of July

July 4, 2010

Papeete, Tahiti,  French Polynesia

We are feeling right at home with the squally and drizzly weather that has greeted us here in Papeete for the Fourth of July.  There are a bunch of Americans downtown at the main quay who will no doubt take this opportunity to celebrate.  We are staying in a suburb called Arue which is to the east of Papeete.  We are going to try navigating the bus to check out downtown and connect with our American cruising friends.

The motorsail back from Moorea yesterday was short but a little bouncy.  We got into Tahiti Yacht Club and tied up to a mooring ball just before the first of several squalls hit us.  We got ashore to restock on fresh fruits and vegetables and then we were going to return with Jarana and search out a Chinese “restaurant” that has been recommended to us, but the rain kept us on the boat.  Jarana ended up coming over for Brad’s most excellent baguette pizzas while we watched to the lightening off in the distance.

PS More pictures have been uploaded!!!!  

Early morning paddler (outrigger canoe) – Point Venus in background

Happy Birthday Brad

July 2, 2010

Uponohu Bay, Moorea, French Polynesia

This turned out to be a great place to celebrate.  We found another birthday boy, Pierre who is captain, dad, etc. on Victoria, and many other reasons besides the usual Canada to have a big beach celebration.  So, we organized a potluck and bonfire on the beach. 

It was still very windy (yet balmy as our friends visiting from Seattle pointed out) which is why we are in Moorea instead of Papeete, but that didn’t stop a good portion of the anchorage from coming ashore to help us celebrate!  There were outstanding dishes contributed as well as the standard birthday cakes.  We had to convince some of our drunk French friends that the American tradition is that you cannot have cake until you have sung “Happy Birthday” to the birthday folk.

We were lucky to have among those attending an astronomer who took some time and gave us the low down on the upcoming total eclipse on July 11th.  We will be in Papeete and if we choose to go 40 miles to the south we will be in the path of the total eclipse.  We will watch the weather and decide if we make the voyage.  Brad and I both remember the total eclipse that we observed in 1979 and would love to give the boys the same opportunity.

Brad also received some birthday greetings over the SSB radio and email.  All in all, I think it was a successful birthday celebration as evidenced by our slow movements this morning.  After checking weather, we will decide if we will head back to Tahiti today or tomorrow morning.

Marooned in Moorea

June 30, 2010
I am not sure if “marooned” is quite the right word, but I do love the alliteration of it all.  In any case, the weather has us “stuck” here.  It’s really not a bad place to be stuck or marooned or whatever.   We were planning on heading back to Tahiti for Brad’s birthday, but since no one seems to moving – no boats are heading on to the western Society Islands and the other boats that were heading back to Tahiti the same as us, we are deciding to just stay put and celebrate Brad’s birthday here.
 
Here is dramatically beautiful.  We are in Opunohu Bay on the leeward (sheltered from the wind) side of Moorea behind a protective barrier reef.  The wind has been up and down for the last two days, but the most telling tale were the three boats that tried to leave this morning and turned right around outside the barrier and came back in to re-anchor.
We have been very busy hiking, biking, snorkeling, hanging out with sting rays and some of our cruiser friends.  The water here is nice and clean, so Brad has gotten the boat’s bottom washed and scraped off most of the growth.  The kids have been spending their last few days with both crews from Totem and Stray Kitty who will both continue west as well as meeting some new friends who will be heading back towards to Tahiti along with us from a boat called Victoria.
    
Time seems to have really speeded up for us.  It is hard to believe that we will be headed for Hawaii in two short weeks.  Luckily, we are pretty ready and we are very excited for our crew to arrive shortly before we are aiming to leave in mid-July.

Note from the blogster:  We are posting pictures to older blog entries and have most of June’s done and posted, so go back and check ‘em out! -PJ

Moving on to Moorea

17* 31.4’ South, 149* 32.1’ West

Tahiti Yacht Club, Arue, Tahiti, French Polynesia

June 25, 2010

Tahiti Yacht Club

Outrigger Canoe Club next to our mooring

 

We are doing a very quick (one day really) turn around of gas, food and repairs so that we can spend a few more days in Moorea with Totem.   I have not been to an American style super market since Mexico and was a little overwhelmed when we went to the one nearby to the Yacht Club where we are staying on a mooring ball.  With the provisioning and all, we have not had any time at all to do any exploring.  We will return here on June 29th and probably be in the same spot until we leave on July 15th where we will try to take care of celebrating birthdays and getting ready for our trip to Hawaii.  We also hope to get in a little exploring then!

Land Ho . . . . . . again!

17* 07.3' South
149* 17.5' West

June 23, 2010

Tahiti – 30 miles out!

This time it was Bryce who called, "LAND HO!" for Tahiti. We were a little more than 50 miles away. Tahiti is a much bigger landmass  than anything we have been aiming at for the last few months. Brad and I were very tired after having dealt with fuel issues. We decided to try to go fast and get to Tahiti from Rangiroa in one overnight rather than two. Brad is hoping that the problem is related to some sludge at the bottom of our fuel tanks.
We plan to do a little bit of exploring, but our big goals here are to get re-provisioned and take care of few pieces of business before we leave for Hawaii around the 15 July. I am still hoping for faster internet so that I can work on uploading some pictures!

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Winter Solstice

Rangiroa, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
June 21, 2010

If there is a "winter" here, it came roaring in last night with the wind howling at 25 to 35 knots for several hours. Before that, at dinnertime last night, we had torrential rains! It is the first sustained rains we have had since Manzanillo in February and this time Brad worked on getting rain water into our water tanks.
We are at anchor in a pretty protected corner near the east pass. We also knew this weather was on its way, so we were not very surprised when the weather whipped up.
It was still pretty windy this morning, but things are definitely calming down. The sun is out, so it is still pretty warm. As soon as the intense part of this system pass by us, we will pull anchor and head for Tahiti, probably tomorrow.

I didn’t take any pictures during the nasty weather, but here are some of the anchorage:

 

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Last of the Tuamotus

14* 58.0' South
147* 38.2' West
Rangiroa Atoll, Tuamotus, French Polynesia
June 18, 2010

The overnight passage between Toau Atoll and Rangiroa Atoll was very pleasant. We left Tuesday about 1:00 pm on a nice, but dying breeze. Brad's navigational timing was again spot on as we sailed to within 6 miles of Rangiroa's Pass before we the wind got light and we turned on the engine and motored through the pass about 10:00 am. We did not wait for slack water as this pass is very deep and we had a pretty exciting moment or two (for she who was hand steering anyway) as we had about 4 knots of current against us.

Rangiroa’s eastern pass:  Passe de Tiputa

The anchorage and the main town in this part of Rangiroa are on separate ends of the main motu about 5 miles apart. We were very low on dinghy fuel and one of the pearl farmers nearer to the anchorage than the town sold us 5 gallons of gas. We then proceeded to make a foray to "the village" where we were finally able to hit an ATM (though we still had a few French Polynesian Francs held in reserve) and get some more fresh fruits and vegetables. We are not sure if anything is grown here other than coconuts and grapes (there is a winery!) because most of the fresh stuff seems to come from the Marquesas. This community is definitely not as egalitarian as most that we have seen in since we made landfall in the Marquesas. There are definitely differing levels of income and social stratification here. I am sure that we will see even more of this in Papeete.
Yesterday, we crossed the pass to another village (much closer to the anchorage). We were able to use the internet at the post office and found a little store where the women was making Polynesian style quilts and had soft ice cream! Back on this side of the pass is a hamburger stand/restaurant that is right at the main quai and a bit out over the water so that you can watch the fish and stingrays swim around a shallow reef right from your table. The kids loved it.

 
We have brought the bikes to shore and done some riding up and down the main atoll. There are definitely more tourist attraction-type opportunities here: scooter/bike rentals, pearl farms, artists, and of course, dive centers. Brad and I did not quite make it to the main village on this morning's ride, but maybe that will be tomorrow's activity.

     

Snorkeling the reef just inside the Passe is fantastic.  Since there are more people here, the fish are not at all afraid of them and often seek out the human snorkeler in hopes of handouts!  Sometimes, they get in the way of the camera!

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